There are some unfortunate people who simply do not respond to art, to music, to nature, to beauty. On Sunday, “liberal japonicus” at Obsidian Wings posted a link to an Adam Gopnik piece titled “The Music Donald Trump Can’t Hear.” The most chilling line in the article: “There is no music in this man.” Not coincidentally, the Trump team is apparently looking to defund the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the name of fiscal restraint (not enough classy paintings of Elvis on velvet or reruns of The Apprentice to satisfy the Philistine-in-Chief, I guess).

That photo of Trump with his trusty Sharpie didn’t infuriate me, unlike you guys. After I got through shaking my head in disbelief, I began to see the inadvertent humor of a 70-year-old acting like a four-year-old who pretending to know his letters like a big boy. (Also, the bad taste of those wall tiles behind the desk cannot be overstated.)

We’ve already seen how Trump will deal with the press: he’ll insult and snub legitimate news outlets like CNN, then call on Dead Andy. I wait in vain for legitimate news outlets to realize they’re shut out of official access to the Trump White House and decide to develop non-official sources, but it’s so much easier to whine.

Isn’t it interesting that information harmful to Hillary Clinton made it out to the public but information harmful to Donald Trump did not? Why, it’s almost as if bits of the Intelligence Community (*cough* James Comey *cough*) took it upon themselves to put a thumb on the scale.

The Rs don’t give a monkey’s that there are unanswered questions about the election because they won. Everything else is irrelevant. Party before country, after all.

Of course Alex Jones has the ear of Donald Trump: they’re both conspiracy-addled nitwits. Trump is a piker compared to Jones—birferism is the least of Jones’s irrational obsessions—but they’re still kindred spirits. The only surprise would be if Infowars didn’t get White House press credentials.

I’m expecting lots of Hitlergrüße (I think that’s the correct plural, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) along the inaugural parade route and lots of attempts at intimidation along the protest route. I hope I’m wrong.

Bravo, Marcus Muir. Glaswegians seem to share a strange and wonderful sense of humor, and Muir did the world a gigantic favor by deploying it in the cause of showing Paul Joseph Watson to be a lip-bobbling idiot.

Roger Stone was emphatically not poisoned with polonium; if he had been, he’d be quite dead. Hell, even the frelling Daily Fail is being uncharacteristically circumspect when it comes to Stone’s claims.

Oh, no, Bob. Stone is claiming he was poisoned by the *ahem* Deep State (the Intelligence Community, in other words) to keep him from exposing the Democrats’ lie that Russia materially affected the election. Whatever amount of bullshit you think Stone is shoveling, multiply that by 1000.

As I said today on the blog, Rick Perry would be out of his depth running a yard sale.

Betsy DeVos has given zero thought to any issue regarding education beyond how much money she and her fellow rich folks can siphon out of the public schools. I suppose we should be thankful Trump didn’t nominate Michelle Rhee as Secretary of Education, but DeVos is a disaster waiting to happen.

Yes, guys, there is indeed a Wapiti, Wyoming. It’s a wide spot in the road in northwest Wyoming. (Wapiti, so you know, derives from the Shawnee and Cree word for the North American elk.) Wapiti is probably a lovely place, but basing national policy on the experience of the town’s school is madness.

And yes, in some areas grizzly bears are a concern, including on school campuses. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

Paul Ryan is a sociopath. He simply doesn’t care about those 25,800 people in his district. Once again, I do wish he’d stayed in Janesville and become a personal trainer.

And yes, the inauguration will quickly degenerate into yet another stop on Donald Trump’s “Ain’t I Wonderful?” Tour. Ick.

–alopecia

ProudLiberalAlways

Fellas, there is NOTHING on that pad—his Sharpie is still capped! News flash, they don’t work that way! Besides, if there was anything on that pad, he wouldn’t have it bent-up at the corner so you very intentionally cannot see the surface of the pad. The sad truth is we are getting a fucking fraud! A total, fucking, fraud!!!

Bosma

Also, if you even attempted to write on a legal pad with a sharpie like that, the ink would bleed through the next 10 pages, and would be extremely illegible from the ink smearing. Every 3rd grader ever assigned an essay knows this. Sad!

Badgerite

Oh dear God. Josh Marshall tweet.
“So trump wanted a Soviet style inaugural parade with tanks and missiles. DOD said no, let him have a flyover. As of tomorrow, he runs DOD.”
Shoot me now. Where is the blindfold. I would like a coke first.
This just isn’t going to work. Unfit. Unhinged. Unqualified. Unpresident.

Scopedog

And yet, despite this…I’m still seeing idiots tweeting about how much worse Hillary would have been. It’s from the usual suspects (H.A. Goodman, Walker Bragman, the Green Party), but you want to grab these people and do this:

No kidding. The Green Party, Wikileaks , etc have lost all credibility this election cycle. HA Goodman never had any to being with.

Aynwrong

What is that from?

Scopedog

I believe it’s from the show Victorious…and the redhead is Ariana Grande!

Aynwrong

Thanks.

Badgerite

I guess colluding with a foreign power to sabotage an American presidential election does not rise to the level of “exceedingly careless” so. Comey should be off the hook. Eh?

Scopedog

Yeah, it seems that lying about getting a blowjob and having a private server and EMAILS! and being Black while President are far, FAR worse crimes….SMDH.

Badgerite

I’m looking at trump the way they are looking at him overseas. As the Little Dictator.

Badgerite

Maybe they should just leave the “codes” with Ivanka.

Nan Moder

Friday feels like a national day of mourning. My sympathies to all sound minded, frustrated, disappointed and basically fearful people of this nation. My best to all.

Badgerite

What Cummings said. That has to be the case. The GOP is dragging their feet. They want to get him and Pence sworn in and then if they have to get rid of trump they still hold all the political cards. At least I hope that is the case. Because this guy is a democracy’s worst nightmare. A tool of a foreign power. As much as I don’t like Pence, he is not a puppet of Putin like trump is. He has not been compromised as trump has. And he would at least take his responsibilities seriously. And not be an international joke. Damaging our key alliances and our influence and our security in a dangerous world.

Scopedog

The GOP recklessness threatens to damage not just our own country but the very idea of democracy and representative government.

And that’s how they’ve been operating for years now–I mean, take a look at the voter suppression, their hostility towards a clean environment, regulations, the LBGT community…

One hopes that is too much, even for the corrupt and craven GOP only interested in its own power.

It may come to that, but I’m not holding my breath.

Qahir Makhani

You do realise that, if you have the right mentality in not wanting to compromise, you can sink the whole GOP.

Scopedog

You certainly have a point there.

Badgerite

If he does that, fires all these people who are investigating him, all of those Obama hold overs they are relying on to keep things going for this inept incompetent crazy crowd will quit. Saturday Night Massacre style.

Scopedog

That’s just it–it’s going to be something that will really show that yes, he does have something to hide and that he is covering his ass. They can spin it for all it’s worth, but it’s going to be the 21st-century version of Night of the Long Knives.

I still think that Trump’s Administration is going to come crashing down, and hard. You just cannot have a group of people this corrupt, this incompetent in charge and expect smooth sailing.

And always remember: “Sooner or later, the day comes….when you can no longer hide from what you’ve done anymore.”